We've had a good couple past months here at Veritas Lux Mea. Readership is up (er, consistent), and apparently people are enjoying what I'm putting down, as we've even been linked on Best Week Ever TV. In addition, awhile back I was quoted from an article on MP3 blogs for the magazine, Junk. It services the South East Asia region primarily, but as I've always believed, and Britney Spears has proven, any press is good press, and I was more than happy to contribute to the article. JPEG snippets of the article are below, for my own shameless self promotion:
To further stroke my own ego*, as you might have guessed (or maybe, as you might not have guessed?), we here at Veritas Lux Mea receive quite a bit of inbox traffic from various artists, PR people, record companies, and fans regarding artists that they would like to see featured on Veritas Lux Mea. While I do try and accommodate a fair number of artists, particularly those artists that I feel are in line with this website's audience or whom I generally like at first listen, there are many that fly under the radar and end up lost in the inbox. So occasionally, I try and clean out the mail and get some of those lost emails out into the blogosphere for you to enjoy...this, Sunday Cleaning.
*In all honesty, none of this is probably all that grand, and truthfully, I really depend on outside recommendations to even have any ideas as to what's new in the music scene, other than my own findings and opinions. But for a guy who gets to spend 30 minutes every morning writing about the music he loves, everything is pretty much a welcome surprise.
Featured Artist: Nicole Atkins
[Bio via her Myspace site]: The sound of Nicole Atkins' Bleeding Diamonds EP, which serves as a handy introduction to her upcoming, feature-length Columbia Records debut, is like the opening scene to one of her favorite directors David Lynch's Blue Velvet. Underneath the sunny blue skies, immaculately manicured suburban homes and their bright green lawns lies a forbidding black hole of danger, violence and death.
That is the world described by this 27-year-old singer/songwriter from Neptune, a New Jersey shore town just down the coastline from Asbury Park, where she grew up in an idyllic childhood, teaching herself to play a Grateful Dead song on the guitar she found in the attic once owned by an uncle who died when he was 13. Her father turned her on to blues artists like Jimmy Reed, allowing Nicole to sit in on sessions with local musician friends. She played for three years with the North Carolina alt-country band Los Parasols before making a name for herself as a solo performer on New York City's anti-folk scene.
Earlier this year, Atkins was named one of Rolling Stone's Top 10 Artists to Watch, raving about her "big voice full of longing and Loretta Lynn elegance, and slightly surreal folk-pop songs that evoke moonlit walks with the shadows closing in."
Think Roy Orbison's "Cryin'" if he was a woman, the orchestral sweep of Sufjan Stevens, the bleak vision of Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen, the darkly mysterious girl group-on-acid musings of Julee Cruise and Lynch composer Angelo Badalamenti, the sorrow of Patsy Cline, the '60s psychedelia of Love and Nuggets, all with a redeeming sense of hope amidst the emotional wreckage...
"Y'know, all that pain and heartache," says Nicole, with her glasses on, looking like a ringer for Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey.
"I'm trying to find the words you want to hear," she sings on the title track of her six-song Bleeding Diamonds EP, recorded with her band The Sea - guitarist Dave Hollinghurst, bassist John Flaughter, drummer Dan Mintzer and keyboardist Dan Chen. Atkins explains the song was inspired by watching footage of the war from Iraq on TV, with the bombs exploding on the screen "as if the sky were Bleeding Diamonds," as Nicole pretends to be a woman waiting for a loved one to come home from the battlefront.
Nicole Atkins SXSW Schedule
March 14 3:50 PM Gorilla vs. Bear/Gothamist Party @ The Mohawk
March 14 11:00 PM Pure Volume Lounge (Indoors: 2nd St & Trinity)
March 16 6:00 PM Industry of Music Party @ Fado's, back stage
March 17 1:00 AM Official SXSW Showcase @ Copa
Nicole Atkins - "The Way It Is"
Nicole Atkins at Myspace
Featured Artist: The Attachments
A few years ago Ben Urwand met Michael Coleman at Chateau, a run-down, drug-infested student co-op in Berkeley. Ben was an obsessive songwriter who spent eight hours per day composing new material. Michael was a prodigious keyboardist who dug Ben’s songs and thought up clever ways of arranging them. In January 2006 they decided to form The Attachments. Michael brought in his friend Rob Schwartz, a talented drummer from Oberlin, and Ben introduced everyone to Mark Allen-Piccolo, a bass player who was also a student at Berkeley.
Throughout 2006 The Attachments worked really hard. They tightened their arrangements and worked out appealing vocal harmonies for their songs. Michael and Mark also started writing their own material. While Ben is the lead singer, everyone sings at least one song per concert, allowing audiences to see that they are truly an integrated band. Maybe it’s their catchy songwriting, maybe it’s their charm and wit on stage, but audiences are always totally captivated by The Attachments, never bored. Only a few months into their career The Attachments were scouted by several indie labels who offered to record them professionally, but they decided to record themselves. As the son of a sound engineer, Mark had a long interest in recording, so in summer 2006 he produced their first, self-titled EP (released in October). The Attachments are currently playing shows throughout the Bay Area, and are writing and arranging new songs every day.
The Attachments - "Karla"
The Attachments - "F-Train Girl"
The Attachments - "Ha Ha Ha"
The Attachments at Myspace
Featured Artist: The Italian Edition
credit: caleb j. byers | thenumber.ca)
Italian Edition formed in the summer of 2005 in Victoria BC. Peter (guitar) had met Matt (bass) in math class at the University of Victoria. Jay (drums) had played with Matt in Lythic Blue until 2004, when he moved to Ontario. When Jay returned, he began to jam with Peter and Matt, just for kicks. Local band Pushing Up Daisies had recently broken up, leaving Jack (vocals) and Dave (guitar) looking for a new project. Forming a sweet new band was the obvious solution.
The band started playing live shows in October, choosing the name Italian Edition for themselves. Positive feedback and encouragement was received from strangers and friends alike. With the hasty recordings of three songs, and their subsequent push using the internet,more opportunities came along and by January of 2006 the band was playing sold out shows in Victoria. The popularity of the recorded songs and live shows led to the decision to release an album by fall of 2006 and tour like crazy to support it. The full-length release, titled The Fable of the Mouse and the Frog, was released at the end of September to some sweet reviews.
The Italian Edition comes highly recommended from us for any fans of the Cold War Kids, Tokyo Police Club, or people who like good progressive indie rock.
The Italian Edition - "Show Me Yours"
The Italian Edition - "Miss Demeanor"
The Italian Edition at Myspace
Remixes from Tago Mago
According to Tago Mago, "I've been making electronic music for 7-8 years now, and recently got into remixing a capella tracks. I'd say 70-80% of the music not including voice is me on midi; the rest is an assortment of samples, including ones of tracks my friends made." Wanna sample? Check out the songs below, or visit the website.
tago-mago feat. the b-52's - "love shack (mix a)"
tago-mago, the cocteau twins & marvin gaye - "touch upon touch"
Featured Artist: The Safes
A literal "band of brothers," the all sibling trio The Safes is one of the hottest bands in the reputable Chicago rock scene. The rock/powerpop/soul threesome received much praise for its two previous efforts and has traversed the country playing for eager crowds. Well, Well, Well, The Safes latest and strongest record builds on that solid foundation. With a sound that embodies the adage "old, new, borrowed, and blue", The Safes are sure to get your feet tapping. The O'Malley brothers' family chemistry is easily discernible upon first listen and contributes volumes to this brilliantly cohesive music (think Kinks). With the release of Well, Well, Well, and the great reputation of their lauded live show, The Safes stands poised to emerge from the Chicago market as a national force.
The Safes - "Phonebook Full of Phonies"
Featured Artist: The Makes Nice
Early 2004, after leaving countless bands, including The Fucking Champs and Drunk Horse, Josh Smith was looking for an insane soul drummer, with hopes of starting an instrumental R&B combo along the lines of the 1966 incarnation of Gatemouth Brown's Beat Boys with Freddie King. He found that drummer in Jack Matthew, the fiery volcano driving San Francisco soul favorites Harold Ray Live in Concert.
After 12 months of sweet jams, and multiple shitty prototypical incarnations, Josh saw killer-diller garage kiddies The Mothballs perform at a warehouse party in Oakland, CA. Blown away by their radness, Josh was especially taken by the sweetly shred-tastic 4-string mega-chops of Aaron Burnham, then just 21 years of age. When lead vocals were handed over to young Mr Burnham for a stellar rendition of The Zombies' beat classic "Woman," Josh knew what he had to do. Six or seven awkward emails later, the line-up was complete. The original R&B concept long-since abandoned in favor of freakbeat-influenced vocal group stylings, the three decided to call their new group The Makes Nice for reasons unknown. Perhaps they just really like Steve Marriot.
The Makes Nice - "Candy Wrapper"
That's all for this week's Sunday Cleaning. I'm off to pick up some crickets for my gecko.
"Well, if he's so sensitive, why doesn't he lose 70 pounds and stop talking about geckos?" - Brad Stand, I Heart Huckabees